Dance School

A free seminar designed to teach rape prevention and self defense will be offered at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at a Sanford dance school.Miriam Rye Wright and Valerie Rye Weld, directors of the School of Dance Arts, 2560 Elm Ave., are offering the two-hour program as a public service to area women.Dean Ray, a student of martial arts for the last 15 years and a black belt in the Korean Tae Kwon Do style of karate, will present the program. He has been giving similar seminars for the last four years.

Eight months after mold forced the Orlando Ballet from its longtime home, the dance company could be moving to new headquarters in a prime location, Orlando's Loch Haven Park. Leaders of the city and the ballet have struck a deal that will let the dance company rent the Loch Haven Community Center for $1 per year. The 99-year lease is similar to a shorter one the city has with the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, also in the park off Princeton Street near downtown. "It is an amazing location that brings us right into the heart of the city's cultural core," said Ava Doppelt, president of the ballet's board.

The School of Dance Arts will be one of several Central Florida dance troupes participating at the Wyndham Hotel Sea World's ''Twelve Days Before Christmas'' holiday festival beginning this weekend.Performing at 1 p.m. on Sunday, the Sanford dance school will feature ballet, tap, jazz, and musical comedy routines.All events are free and will be held in the 65,000 square-foot atrium/lobby of the hotel, across from Sea World in south Orlando.Sisters Valerie Weld and Miriam Wright are co-directors of the school.

At my house, holiday traditions include listening to Elvis's original Christmas album, catching at least one scene of "It's a Wonderful Life," and getting to a performance of "The Nutcracker" - something I've been doing since the days when "ballet" in Central Florida was synonymous with the names Royal and Ebsen. A Royal couple When Edith Royal died at 77 in 1996, Sentinel dance critic Diane Hubbard Burns deemed her "the woman who set Central Florida dancing. " "To me she was the mother of dance in Florida," said Kip Watson, a co-founder of the professional company now named the Orlando Ballet (formerly the Southern Ballet Theatre)

By Gary Taylor of The Sentinel Staff (Reporter Terry Osinski contributed to this story.), May 21, 1986

Two city garbage collectors escaped injury Tuesday morning when their truck snagged a power line and crashed into the side of a building.The accident happened about 8:25 a.m. at the School of Dance Arts, 2560 S. Elm Ave.Travis G. Robinson, 31, of 2208 Alexander Ave., Sanford, was driving the truck from the right side of the dual-control cab, Sanford police said. Eddie Key, 37, of 1108 Orange Ave., Sanford, was riding on the left side.As Robinson turned the truck east to drive through the dance school parking lot, the building's electrical service line became entangled on the rear of the truck.

In Lake County, it goes without saying that football is for boys and dance is for girls.It's a long-cherished stereotype, and one that Maria Errico of the Golden Triangle School of Dance is determined to break.''The boys have this attitude that dance is just for girls,'' Errico said. ''I tell them to look at Baryshnikov -- nobody could deny that he's a fantastic, sexy athlete.''Football exercises are similar to dance steps, she pointed out. Plies, for instance -- in which the legs are flexed while feet are spread apart and turned out -- are a basic ballet step that is used to strengthen thighs in football warm-ups.

Parents enrolling their child in dance class for the first time face a choice that can enrich the child's life or shatter his self-esteem. Selection of a dance school and teacher are decisions too important to be dictated by proximity or convenience, said Robert Sherry, director of dance at Rollins College in Winter Park.He and several other prominent Central Florida dance teachers said parents need not know a lot about dance in order to make a wise decision. Common sense and the consideration of several important factors should help guide their selection:-- Teacher preparation: A dance teacher's background and training are important indicators of his or her skill, and a professional performing career or a college degree are advantageous.

The former artistic director of Orlando's Southern Ballet Theatre and the company's former leading ballerina are teaming up to open a new dance school and start a student performing ensemble in southwest Orlando. The Ballet Academy of Central Florida will open Sept. 11 in the Shoppes of Windermere at the corner of Apopka Vineland and Conroy-Windermere roads, say co-directors Vasile Petrutiu and Heather Sanders. "Our main focus is strict, Russian-classical training" and other classes to complement that, Sanders said.

In an unusual collaboration among two colleges and a dance school, 40 dancers will join forces for a program to be presented the next two weekends.The students, ages 14 through adult, hail from Rollins College in Winter Park, Valencia Community College in Orlando and the School of Performing Arts, a private dance school in Fern Park. They will perform a program that encompasses classical ballet, modern dance and jazz.These disparate elements have been brought together by three dance instructors who teach at the various schools but also are united on the staff of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Rollins College.

Palucca, one of Germany's best-known modern dancers and dance teachers, died Monday in Dresden. She was 91. Palucca, who won acclaim as a solo dancer in 1924, was of Greek and Turkish descent, and the Nazis closed her dance school and hindered her career for ''racial reasons.'' She was allowed to perform, but critics were barred from praising her. She gave her last public performance in 1950.

First there were the robberies and the corner drug markets. Then came shootings and even a slaying. But it wasn't until Peggy Sutton was leaving her South Side dance studio and saw a group of her young students playing happily in the parking lot while in the distance a group of men were being searched by police that she decided it was time to leave Chatham. "The neighborhood is just getting worse and worse," said Sutton, who owns and manages the school, which was founded by her famous father, Tommy Sutton.

The sights and sounds of thundering hoofers will inaugurate L.A.'s newest green space on Saturday as the Dizzy Feet Foundation hosts its National Dance Day festivities in conjunction with the opening of downtown's Grand Park. "My goal is to get people on their feet, as much for health reasons as much as for artistic reasons," says producer Nigel Lythgoe , a founder of Dizzy Feet and the driving force behind National Dance Day. "We've become so sedentary in our ways. I think if people start dancing for fun, they'll realize they enjoy it and it'll do even more for their health.

A series of farewell recitals will take place this weekend, June 2 and 3, in the Johnny Holloway Theatre as Harwood-Watson Dance Studios shuts down, pending a move to a new home. A lot of folks have learned and performed at the space over the years, so this marks a final opportunity to say good-bye. Harwood-Watson Dance Studios was co-founded by Kip Watson, who died in April 2011, and Eliza Harwood-Watson. The Studios served as home for the Watsons' dance school, as well as The Performers Dance Company.

Now it's time to say goodbye to the graduates at William McKinley High. This week's glee club assignment is, appropriately enough, "Goodbye. " Mr. Schu asks the underclassmen to perform a song for the seniors and vice versa. Then he delivers a heartfelt acoustic version of Rod Stewart 's "Forever Young. " C'mon, Mr. Schu, you're going to make me cry and we're not even five minutes into the episode! Then we segue to Kurt's reflection on his last four years at William McKinley, where he spent ample amount of time in both the closet and the dumpster.

The Orlando Ballet School has produced full-length versions of Swan Lake and Cinderella previous springs and this weekend premieres an original ballet version of Snow White. The Space Coast Ballet of Melbourne, a largely student ensemble with a few paid professionals and guest dancers, boasts sets and costumes made at Russia's Kirov Ballet for its full-length Sleeping Beauty. Orlando City Ballet, another student ensemble, weighs in with a full-length ballet version of West Side Story in April.

Some goals are quickly realized, while others take years to incubate. Kip Watson and Eliza Harwood-Watson have long dreamed of having a theater space that would encourage dancers to experiment and perform without taking on the high cost of renting an established theater. That dream will be realized Sunday with the grand opening of the Black Box Theater at Harwood-Watson Dance Studios in Orlando. A 6 p.m. performance will present the school's student troupe, The Dance Ensemble; a plans-to-be-professional modern company called Soul Play; and choreographer Jonny Silva's interpretation of traditional Venezuelan joropo.

Gentry, a modern dancer who was interested in dance notation and physical conditioning, died June 17 at her home in Santa Fe, N.M. She was 84. Her concern for preserving choreography led her to establish the Dance Notation Bureau in New York in 1940. Persistent back and knee problems led her to investigate, and later teach, a system of physical conditioning devised by Joseph H. Pilates, a physical therapist. In 1968 she moved to New Mexico, where she established a dance school and, in 1991, an institute devoted to the Pilates method.

At my house, holiday traditions include listening to Elvis's original Christmas album, catching at least one scene of "It's a Wonderful Life," and getting to a performance of "The Nutcracker" - something I've been doing since the days when "ballet" in Central Florida was synonymous with the names Royal and Ebsen. A Royal couple When Edith Royal died at 77 in 1996, Sentinel dance critic Diane Hubbard Burns deemed her "the woman who set Central Florida dancing. " "To me she was the mother of dance in Florida," said Kip Watson, a co-founder of the professional company now named the Orlando Ballet (formerly the Southern Ballet Theatre)

Every year, the month of March keeps students of the Tir na Greine School of Irish Dance on their toes. When St. Patrick's Day celebrations roll around, the Irish step dancers find themselves in demand. Typically, they perform at churches, pubs, parties and parades across Central Florida. "It's the time for everybody to be Irish," said Laura O'Sullivan, director of the dance school. Monday is St. Patrick's Day, which means the young dancers are booked all weekend. But their performances won't end there.

The former artistic director of Orlando's Southern Ballet Theatre and the company's former leading ballerina are teaming up to open a new dance school and start a student performing ensemble in southwest Orlando. The Ballet Academy of Central Florida will open Sept. 11 in the Shoppes of Windermere at the corner of Apopka Vineland and Conroy-Windermere roads, say co-directors Vasile Petrutiu and Heather Sanders. "Our main focus is strict, Russian-classical training" and other classes to complement that, Sanders said.